The present invention refers to a rolling bearing according to the preamble of the accompanying claim 1.
In such bearings of conventional design the momentary revolution speed of the rolling bodies varies with the momentary load. For avoiding the rolling bodies and the retainer thereby from influencing each other with large forces, which could cause i.a. a rapid wear and energy losses, it is earlier known to design the retainer in such a manner that the play of the rolling bodies in the retainer pockets will allow the speed of the rolling bodies to vary in differently loaded sections of their revolution path. A large pocket play is however a drawback in other aspects. The ability of the retainer in guiding the rolling bodies is for instance reduced and annoying noises can be generated. It is also known to make retainers in a flexible material for the region around the retainer pockets, whereby the retainer is allowed to be deformed at the contact with the rolling bodies. Such retainers are however complicated to make and their strength and ability of guiding the rolling bodies are oftenly unsatisfactory.
In some cases the revolution speed will vary between different rolling bodies depending upon the fact that the rolling bodies from tolerance reasons are of different size. The smallest rolling bodies, which are always subjected to comparatively light load, must then always be pushed on, and the larger rolling bodies are retarded through their contact with the retainer and this condition is not altered by use of earlier known retainer constructions, which therefore cannot solve the problem in these cases.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a bearing of the type defined in the preamble, in which the revolution speed of the rolling bodies is not depending on the size of the load on the rolling bodies. This is obtained according to the invention by giving the bearing the features defined in the accompanying claim.
As the revolution speed of the rolling bodies is not depending on their load, all rolling bodies will at each moment have the same revolution speed, also if they lie in different load zones or are of different size within reasonable measure tolerances, which means that the retainer pockets without inconvenience can be dimensioned to give the rolling bodies a small play in the pockets, whereby the ability of the retainer to guide the rolling bodies will be good and the risk for annoying noises is reduced. It is furthermore avoided that the rolling bodies which are bigger or smaller than the nominal dimension will be influenced by forces from the retainer.